Oedipus Rex: Literature Circle

Using the answers you gave to the questions from the Introduction to Oedipus Rex AND the questions below, be prepared to have a literature circle discussion in class followed by a timed in-class writing piece on the following prompt: Using Oedipus Rex, explain what you believe is Sophocle's message to his audience about fate, destiny, and prophecies? Cite from the play.​Tiresias replies that he is beholden to no one but Apollo—the “higher authority” that the Greeks thought was God. This allows him to speak the painful truth to Oedipus. What caused Tiresias to change his mind and speak the truth, do you think?

Now that you have seen Oedipus react directly to adversity, is your opinion of him different? Would you characterize Oedipus as evil, or merely human, in his angry reaction to Tiresias’s speeches?

Oedipus calls himself an “abomination” for killing his father and marrying his mother. If he was aware of neither, why does he call himself evil? Is a man responsible for the evil of his actions if he is truly unaware that they are evil? Explain Oedipus’s ancient Greek thinking and your own.

Oedipus’s outrage concerning his mother’s act of sending her baby away to its death belies the fact that the ancients must have done this often; such stories (such as the story of Moses-- Exodus 2: 1-6) are present in the Bible. For extra credit, do research in a library or the Internet on ancient practices of abortion and child-murder and present it in a short talk to the class.